A large variety of mobile information processing devices (“Mobile Devices”) are produced each year. Consumers of Mobile Devices are faced with a variety of choices when purchasing a device, and more than 70% of all consumers do some sort of research on the Internet before making a purchase, and roughly 15% of all consumers actually purchase a device from the Internet.
Previously, only general information has been available about the functionality of a Mobile Device itself its wireless data services (“Mobile Services”), and downloadable applications (“Mobile Applications”). This information has generally consisted of device specifications such as display size, memory size, wireless network compatibility, and battery life information.
As Mobile Devices, Mobile Services, and Mobile Applications become more sophisticated, there is a need to provide a more extensive and interactive preview of the device and services available for consumers. Previously, attempts have been made to show mobile products and services using visual demonstrations created with standard authoring tools such as HTML or Adobe Flash, but these generally provide a limited and non-interactive representation of the actual functionality being offered. These representations are limited by the nature of how they are created, generally by taking still photographs of a device LCD display and piecing these individual frames together into a mock-up of the actual application or service. Also, since the demonstrations must be created in advance, it has not been possible to make them interactive in any way that is similar to the actual experience of the application on the live device.